CWSL_DIGI version 0.88 is available. If your station skims WSPR, FST4 or FST4W, an immediate upgrade is recommended to fix important issues.
Download: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1s3EbJOl4l_2uplmsiTWSJvSfH_U2Hpgp?usp=drive_link
The Intel Fortran redistributable may be needed. An installer is available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1pk99ruANXTd_87oLce2L32H2V-P6dAFn?usp=drive_link
Please note that version 0.87 was never released.
The most notable changes from version 0.86:
Enhancement: FT8 - support Fox/Hound messages. This will increase the number of FT8 spots significantly if you skim the DX frequencies when an expedition is going on!
Enhancement: JS8 - support for some JS8 message formats. Requires JS8Call to be installed.
Enhancement: Supports SOTAmat FT8 messages (Resolves #6)
Fix: use hostname instead of IP Address when connecting to WSPRNet and PSK Reporter. This resolves the ongoing issue with 0.86 and earlier being unable to contact WSPRNet.
Fix: FST4 and FST4W decoding bugs that prevented successful decoding in many cases.
Fix: several bugs in callsign handling and bad callsign detection.
Fix: Improve PSK Reporter connection reliability.
Thank you to MM3NDH, NH6V, K9IMM, AB6D, and N1DG for reporting bugs and with testing.
Callsign Handling Notes:
Prior versions did not generate spots when any callsign in a message was in a packed format, e.g., or <W2AXR/QRP>. Packed callsigns are now unpacked.
SOTAmat spotting messages are now handled and reported to PSK Reporter. These messages are useful to the SOTA and POTA communities and are specifically consumed by SOTAmat (https://sotamat.com) to assist with activator spotting.
Additional "bad callsign" detection has been implemented to prevent grid squares from being reported as callsigns, along with "QRP", "SOTA", "POTA", etc.
FST4 and FST4W NOTES:
Wave files are always used for FST4 and FST4W decoders.
Consider skimming CW and digital (WSPR, FST4 and FST4W are popular digital modes) on 630m or even 2200m if you have the ability. There's a solid amount of activity and some intercontinental DX on 630m. More skimmers are needed on 630m!
JS8 NOTES:
JS8 support should be considered new and experimental.
JS8Call from http://js8call.com must be installed to decode JS8. Otherwise, you don't need it.
There are several JS8 message formats. CWSL_DIGI is capable of decoding a subset of them.
Wave files are always used for JS8 decoders. I have not been able to get the "shmem" transfer mechanism working with the JS8Call software.
CWSL_DIGI needs to know where JS8Call is installed on your computer. The following should be added to config.ini:
[js8call]
binpath=C:\Program Files (x86)\js8call\bin
JS8 support can be enabled in the [decoders] section of config.ini for each band as desired. e.g.:
decoder=14078000 JS8 # 20M
decoder=7078000 JS8 # 40M